It’s outdoor classroom day today! To celebrate, we thought we would share what we were learning in our Forest “classroom” today!

Our new skill today was whittling sticks. Whittling is a fun and creative way to introduce knife skills and is done by using a sharp object such as a knife, or in our case a peeler,  to carve wood. Using our knowledge, understanding and experience we have gained from our woodwork bench, we were able to transfer and apply these skills to our Forest classroom! We demonstrated this by listening carefully to safety instructions for using our “peelers”. It was very important to remember not to touch the “shiny metal bit” so that “we don’t cut our fingers”, and to hold the peeler “by the handle at the bottom”.

It was important to remember to keep a safe distance round us which we called our blood bubble! We decided it would be safer to take the peeler along the stick away from us “so we don’t cut our fingers”. Lots of wood came off and we could see “the stick change colour”.

While we were having snack under our shelter, we decided that we could use our sticks to “cook marshmallows on the fire” for our last week of Forest School next week.

During our time in our Forest “classroom”,  we have learned so many new skills. Each week we have grown in confidence and developed our gross and fine motor skills through a wide range of activities. It has been so much fun to make new friends and to work as a group and support each other’s learning.

By exploring different outdoor environments and engaging in energetic physical play, we have developed our movement and co-ordination skills and can now climb and balance on trees with confidence!


It was so much fun in our Forest classroom today and we can’t wait to see what we will learn next week!

“The best classroom and the richest cupboard is roofed only by the sky” (McMillan, 1925)

Article 15 you have the right to be with friends. Article 28 you have the right to an education.